Specters of the Past
by Wearer of the Black Hat
Summary: The destinies of two young force wielders becomes intertwined, as a new threat grows on a distant horizon.


Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

Alarm klaxons blared out across the ship, they were under attack, but many of them couldn't figure out just what was attacking them. Stormtroopers swarmed through the corridors as the ship gave another great shudder. The bridge was in such hellish disarray that no one new what was going on. "Captain," was all one man could screech out as his console burst into flaming slag. Other sections of the ship were just as bad, and some were worse. The hanger had been hit first and the hardest. The Imperial Star Destroyer had lost its entire compliment of TIE-fighters in the first few seconds of the attack, after having been striped of her shields, and now most of her pilots lay dead in their bunks, or in the corridors. The engines were teetering dangerously close to overload, and many of the gun emplacements had been destroyed or disabled. Now to make things worse, whoever this enemy was, was sending over a boarding party.

Amazingly enough one member of the crew had managed to sleep through the whole damn thing. "Number 61688943.2, its time to get your ass up and moving!" Demanded a harsh voice from beyond the gentle waves of the subconscious. Her eyes snapped open only to be met with a bright blur, and the skull like features of her bunk mates Stormtroopers helmet in her face. Blinking a couple of times to clear her vision, she finally got a good look at the room around her. It was a standard issue dormitory on the port side of the _Nightwing_; it was about an eight feet by eight feet space with two sleeping pallets, one over the other, built right into the wall. The two sleeping pallets had just enough storage space to hold a couple of flight suits and the Stormtroopers gear. Setting bolt upright she bashed her companion in the head, knocking him back a couple of paces. Satisfied with the result, she got off the pallet and began to pull on one of the flight suits. Completed with that task she began snapping on her Stormtroopers armor, as always lamenting the way it crushed her boobs straight to her chest. Holstering her blaster and snapping a couple extra power packs to her belt, she finally looked back to her bunkmate. "Stop being such a tight ass, Voren." She said using his real name. "And I told you. It's Cera."

"Yeah, and maybe you should pay more attention to protocol, or you'll find your self taking a walk through the airlock without a space suit." He replied while she brushed her chin length black hair. She looked at him and rolled her eyes before putting on her helmet. Connected to the ships Holonet at last she was hit with a wall of information, damage reports filled her ears, lists of the dead played on the side of the view screen, even a mini recap of the battle so far played in one corner of the HUD. Balling her hand up into a fist, she hit Voren as hard as she could. "You should have told me!" she yelled at him. Then, under her breath, she added a very insulting phrase in Huttese

Clambering back on to his feet, he quickly readjusted his helmet, to make sure he was presentable. "Are you through with your childish tantrum? We need to get out of here if you want to live to throw another one." His cold voice, filled with just a hint of chiding and sarcasm, filtered through the helmet. The two Stormtroopers set out for the parts of the ship that were engaged in battle. The hall was filled with rubble, other soldiers, and the remaining crew of the massive starship. Everything was crazy, the vessel rocked back and forth as weapons fire ripped through the hull.

Swiftly moving through the halls the two Stormtroopers found themselves in the thick of a rather heavy firefight. Voren quickly aimed at one of the intruders, the intruders wore silver armor that covered their torso, black spandex like pants, and a helmet with a faceplate that resembled a two-way mirror. The older Stormtroopers hoped that their armor wasn't any more resistant to blaster fire than his. The energy bolt soared from his rifle and struck the first intruder square in the chest. Sparks exploded from the invader's chest, and he fell straight to the ground.

Cera silently cheered on her friend, and fired several shots into the throng of silver armored invaders. Her first shot went wide, but the second struck home blasting a hole straight through the breastplate. Before he fell, Cera got a good look at frayed wires and melting components. "Their droids!" She shouted to her companions, as she lined up another shot. Another one of the stormtroopers fell just before she pulled the trigger.

This engagement went on for several more minutes until it was just Voren and her facing down the last two of the droid soldiers. A thought hit Cera just bomb them. It took her a second to remove one from her belt, and another to press the activator pad on the small frag grenade. She ticked off three more seconds in her head before lobbing the explosive down the hall. Another three passed before it hit the ground, but when it did fire engulfed that side of the corridor. To Cera's joy, only molten slag remained when the smoke cleared.

"Let's move," Voren said without looking at her. "We need to get to the escape pods."

"Right," Cera stated as she cued up the information needed to get to the nearest pods on the Holonet. Unfortunately for them, the two shortest routes were blocked by rubble, and the final route was crowded with the two conflicting forces. And, on top of that, it went right through the Wookie holding pens. "Damn Wookie allergies." Cera muttered to herself.


End file.
